Musk takes fast lane to third spot on rich list

Elon Musk is now the world's third-richest person.

Musk passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as shares of Tesla continued an unrelenting rally after undergoing a forward stock split. He is worth US$115.4 billion (HK$900.12 billion), compared with US$110.8 billion for Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

At the same time, Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the world's richest woman, passing L'Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Scott, 50, who received a 4 percent stake in Amazon.com as part of her divorce from founder Bezos, is worth US$66.4 billion.

Musk, 49, has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by US$87.8 billion this year as Tesla shares surged almost 500 percent.

Also helpful: an audacious pay package - the largest corporate pay deal struck between a chief executive and a board of directors - that could yield him more than US$50 billion if goals are met.

Tesla has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the boom in retail investing during pandemic lockdowns.

Almost 40,000 accounts at online trading firm Robinhood Financial added Tesla shares in a four-hour span last month.

And South Korean retail investors have piled into Tesla this year and hold a 1 percent stake in the US automaker. Tesla's US$464 billion market value now exceeds that of American retail behemoth Walmart.

Last week, Musk joined Zuckerberg, Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates - who is worth US$125 billion - in the rarefied centi-billionaire club as tech stocks rose.

The heady pace of wealth accumulation in recent months is in stark contrast to the state of the global economy and the economic pain being borne by young and lower-wage workers.

Rising income inequality has provoked sharp responses from progressive politicians, and US senator Bernie Sanders has just introduced legislation to tax "extreme wealth gains" during the pandemic.

Musk still has a long way to become the world's richest person: Bezos is worth more than US$200 billion.

Amazon stock has rallied nearly 80 percent since the start of the year as consumers turned to online retailers for necessities.

But the tech businessmen of America are not the only ones whose wealth has soared.

Mukesh Ambani of India became the first Asian to join the top five rich people of the world this month. His net worth has risen to US$81.1 billion on big investments in his Reliance Industries.

The wealth of Chinese tech billionaires also increased. Tencent's Pony Ma Huateng's wealth now stands at US$59 billion ahead of Jack Ma Yun of Alibaba and William Ding Lei of NetEase.